The Effect of Explicit Instruction of Discourse Markers on Iranian EFL Learners' Speaking Ability

Abstract

Since non-native speakers of English lack a deep and wide knowledge of discourse markers (henceforth DMs), they misuse or overuse a limited set of them. Therefore, explicit instruction (EI) of DMs has recently received a significant importance in EFL teaching. The present study attempts to investigate the effect of EI on EFL learners' use of DMs in speaking. To this end, 41 Iranian university EFL learners with an age range of 20 to 23 participated in this study which lasted for one academic semester. They were randomly assigned to an experimental group (20 male and female learners) receiving explicit instruction of DMs and a control group (20 male and female learners) without EI of DMs. Results indicated that the participants in the experimental group outperformed the members of the control one in appropriate and frequent use of DMs.